


trust and praise

by TetrodotoxinB



Series: MCU Kink Bingo 2017 [11]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bingo square: praise kink, D/s AU, Discipline, Gentle Domming, Kneeling, Praise Kink, Punishment, Reading to a sub
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 12:31:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12771120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TetrodotoxinB/pseuds/TetrodotoxinB
Summary: Phil disciplines Steve for a minor infraction and then puts him down gently.Part of a greater D/s AU.





	trust and praise

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by [CaptBarnes](http://archiveofourown.org/users/captbarnes/pseuds/captbarnes) who is always wonderful.

Half past six was now firmly out of the “running late” category, and on into the “not planning to show” category, so Phil left his quarters and went off in search of Steve. He wasn’t in his quarters, the mess hall, or the gym — which just left his office.

Sure enough, Steve was steadily pecking away at the computer when Phil walked in. 

“Captain Rogers,” Phil announced as he stepped into the room.

Steve looked up. “Agent Coulson.”

Phil looked at his watch and then expectantly back at Steve. Steve looked down at the laptop. 

“Shit, I’m sorry, sir. I got so caught up trying to get this paperwork done,” Steve admitted. He ran a hand through his hair and sat back. “I’ve got so much, I do need to get it done.”

Phil pursed his lips in displeasure, and stepped around the desk. “Show me the work you’ve done.”

Steve navigated back to the file folder and opened several documents, all detailing mission reports, personnel evaluations, and supply requests. 

“Now show me your to-do list,” Phil ordered.

Steve pulled up another document with several items listed. Mostly it was just filling out incident reports and explanations how each of the items he’d requested duplicates of had gotten damaged… again.

Curiosity satisfied, Phil turned his attention back to Steve. “Steve, half my agents can’t turn out this amount of work this fast, and the other half can, but won’t. You’re doing well and keeping on top of your work. You also have scheduled office hours in the morning, don’t you?”

“I do,” Steve confirmed looking down a little bit.

Phil laid a gentle hand on Steve’s shoulder. “You’ve worked enough today. You’re off the clock now and you’re going to come with me. I grabbed us both dinner from the mess hall and it’s waiting in my quarters.”

Steve hung his head a little and nodded. “Let me save my work and turn off my computer.”

Phil removed his hand and nodded approvingly. In barely any time at all, they were headed off down the hallway, Steve in lockstep with Phil. Phil would never say anything about it, but Steve always put on a show for other people, never let a dom lead even when he needed it, not when someone else might see it. _I can’t show weakness. I’m a figurehead. If it gets around that I’m subbing in public, even that little bit, it won’t end well,_ Steve had argued.

That was a weak excuse and Phil knew that Steve knew it was, too, but the generational gap between them was so wide that Phil had backed off. Phil just wanted Steve to be confident in who he was; all Steve wanted was not to be seen as weak. But convincing Steve that those weren’t one in the same wasn’t a battle Phil was likely to win anytime soon. So, even though Steve would be kneeling for him in another minute or so, they walked on together like this short walk through the corridors meant nothing.

Phil unlocked the door to his quarters and ushered Steve in ahead of him. Without being told, Steve took the t-shirt and sweats out of the small tote on top of the dresser that Phil kept for him. He excused himself to the bathroom, changing out of his work clothes. Phil did the same and sat down on his hard plastic chair, a kneeling pillow to his left. 

When Steve emerged, he already looked looser. The routine of changing his clothes, like putting on a uniform just to go down, always seemed to be the first solid step in getting him down and Phil smiled. Steve smiled ever so slightly in return and gathered their dinner trays from the table that posed as a desk. There was one for Phil and three for Steve, and he carefully brought Phil his first before carting his own over, arraying them around the pillow. 

They ate in silence. Of course Phil finished first, but rather than say or do anything, he laid a hand on the crown of Steve’s head and lightly ran his nails over Steve’s scalp. Steve let a little groan slip out at the sensation, much to Phil’s surprise. Steve was always so reserved, so careful about his boundaries, that he must’ve been going down fast and hard to be so expressive.

“You’ve been very good, Steve. I’m impressed how well you keep on top of your work,” Phil offered and Steve sighed. Phil paused for the span of a few bites, letting the praise settle in and pull Steve down a bit before going on. “If you don’t mind, I want to pull some of your reports, use them as teaching tools for my agents. I’ll keep your name off of them of course, but they’re excellent examples of how it should be done.”

They didn’t have much in the way of a personal relationship. Phil was Steve’s drop partner, but beyond that they didn’t socialize. Steve didn’t come to him with personal issues, and quite honestly they didn’t know each other all that well. It limited the types of praise that Phil could give, but, for better or worse, Steve seemed to exist solely for the purpose of work. Phil couldn’t say that he approved, but at least it gave him something to work with. 

Phil continued to stroke Steve’s hair, and Steve’s bites got smaller. He began to really take the time to chew thoroughly, unlike his normal eating habit of inhaling the meal. Once Steve started on the third tray, Phil spoke again.

“You know the way that you handled the incursion into the SHIELD outpost yesterday made me proud of you. I know that it hurt, taking the brunt of the explosion like that, but your actions saved several lives and you’ve earned a rather large amount of respect from them. They respected you before because you were Captain America. They respect you now for being Steve Rogers. I think that’s an important distinction, don’t you?” Phil prompted.

Steve set his fork on his tray and nodded. “Yes, sir, I do. I’m just not sure that I made the right choice.”

Phil stopped rubbing and tilted his head to the side, watching and considering Steve. Steve flinched at the change, and guiltily Phil began rubbing again, concerned that Steve might have perceived that action as censure. 

“What are you unsure about?”

Steve swallowed and put his tray on the floor. “That tech was valuable. You said it would save lives. What if I saved the wrong ones; made the wrong choice because it was easier to save the lives in front of me than make the sacrifice play for the greater good?”

Phil leaned forward and took Steve by the chin, tilting his face up to look him in the eye. “There’s a mole in that division that I’m rooting out. We have the tech backed up elsewhere, I just told them that it was destroyed as a ploy. You made the right call, Steve, and even if we didn’t have a backup, I’d still be proud of you. You made a tough choice, and you were willing to sacrifice yourself to do it. You’re a good soldier and a good man, one I’m proud to serve with.”

Steve didn’t pull away, but he looked down. 

“Steve, do you hear me?” Phil asked gently.

“Yes, sir. I hear you,” Steve answered with a small nod.

Phil let go and went back to rubbing Steve’s hair. “Finish your dinner, Steve.”

“Yes, sir,” Steve answered.

They sat in silence, Steve tense all over again. Phil sighed internally. Steve could be so hard to put down at times. Thankfully, Steve was an easy read, and Phil could see guilt written all over him in the way he set his jaw, the way he looked down, the way his shoulders bunched tightly together — fighting the urge to hunch over. Most likely it was guilt over the loss of the very replaceable tech, but there was no way in hell Phil was about to punish Steve for that. Instead, he settled on a punishment for having to go hunt him down for their session earlier. 

Phil waited until Steve had finished eating, collected their trays and put them on the table, and brought the book from the tote where Steve’s things were kept. Phil took the book and waited while Steve settled back in before offering a punishment.

“Steve, I’m not mad about tonight, but you left me waiting for over half an hour, and on top of that I had to scour half the helicarrier to locate you. It’s not particularly good behavior, is it?”

Steve ducked his head and gripped his knees where he knelt. “No, sir. It’s not.”

Phil nodded even though Steve wasn’t watching. “Glad to know that we’re on the same page. Your punishment is to eat in the mess hall for all meals for an entire week unless you’re scheduled to meet me here. If something comes up — like an invitation out with friends — you are to clear it with me first. The obvious exception is being in the field. Are we clear?”

“Yes, sir. I’m sorry I disrespected you,” Steve said with a clear, if sheepish, voice. 

Phil immediately put a hand back on Steve. “You’re forgiven. And besides, you were just trying to get your work done. I can’t be too mad about that. Now, how about I read to you for a while.”

“Yes, please,” Steve murmured.

Phil cracked the book open to where they left off and began to read. Lord of the Rings wasn’t the most riveting read ever, but it was soothing. Sometimes the pages brought excitement and those nights Steve became engrossed by the story. He went down slower those times, but just as well. Tonight though, it was just page after page of walking and landscapes. That would be boring at any other time, but here the slow, gentle movement of the story pulled Steve down softly. 

Bit by bit, Steve slowly relaxed. Phil continued to run his fingers through Steve’s hair as the bulk of Steve’s weight settled against his leg. All told, they read for nearly two hours before Phil softly closed the book.

The small amount of up that Phil got when he put Steve down was beginning to fade. Steve needed to go down more often than Phil needed to go up, and as a consequence that meant that Phil got little bursts of hormones throughout the week, rather than all at once. Still, between Steve and the nature of his work, Phil was satisfied just seeing Steve happy and loose like this.

“How do you feel, Steve?” 

Steve shifted gently against his leg. “Down,” he replied with a bit of a slur to the word.

“Good boy, Steve. So good. You go down so easy for me. No one else gets to see how good you are when you’re like this do they?” asked Phil.

Steve shook his head a little. “No, sir.”

“Are you ready to level out a little bit, or do you need a minute?” Phil asked.

“M’good,” Steve answered. 

Phil ran his hand down the nape of Steve’s neck with a gentle squeeze of approval. “Good boy. Can you tell me what you liked about the story tonight?”

It took Steve a few seconds before he answered. “I liked the landscape, especially how it was described when they came down off the mountain. I can see it in my mind. It seems beautiful.”

Phil smiled and dragged his nails over Steve’s scalp in approbation. “Thank you for sharing that. Is there anything else?” 

He listened to Steve talk about the book for a while, asked a few questions, and shared small thoughts of his own. Slowly, Steve sat up and once he was clear eyed, Phil let his hand fall away.

“How do you feel, Steve?” he asked quietly.

Steve stretched. “Good, sir. I feel a little down, but mostly level.”

“Are you up enough to be by yourself right now?”

Steve took a minute, but nodded. “Yes, sir. I think I’m fine. I’m tired, though.”

Phil smiled. “That’s good. I want you to go back to your quarters, change into your pajamas, get yourself ready for bed, and sleep, or at least stay in bed, until your alarm goes after eight full hours. Do you have any questions?”

“No, sir,” Steve answered.

“Good. You were very good tonight, Steve. Thank you for letting me help you. Remember your mealtime restrictions,” Phil directed. “Now go ahead and get up.”

Steve stood in one fluid motion that made Phil jealous of his seemingly eternal youth. No way his knees could handle that at forty-five. He watched as Steve put the book back in the tote and went to the bathroom to change into his regular clothes. When he emerged, Steve put the clothes back into the tote and went to collect the trays.

“I’ll get those later,” Phil said, stopping him. “Go ahead and go back to your quarters. Have a good night.”

Steve nodded. “Thank you, sir. You, too.” He slipped quietly out of the room and Phil was left in his chair. 

He sighed, wishing that he could go to bed as well, but he had work to do. Grudgingly he changed clothes and gathered the trays to take back to the mess hall on his way to his office. The latest intel on the Tesseract demanded his immediate attention, and as much as he’d love to ride the last of what little up he got with Steve until he passed out, it wasn’t in the cards. 

It stung a little, too, keeping the information on the Tesseract from Steve. Steve had fought and died, more or less, to stop weapons that had been made from the Tesseract from destroying Earth. Phil couldn’t be sure, but he strongly suspected that Steve would not approve of what they were doing. Nonetheless, there were reasons that he kept their relationship professional and this was one of them. But by the time Phil had arrived in his office, he had neatly boxed up his feelings on the matter; much like he had done everyday for the last four months since they had found Steve and the cube. 

Dr. Selvig had noted anomalies with the Tesseract’s energy emissions over the last thirty-six hours which, if continued, would necessitate an evacuation of the Dark Energy Mission Facility. If he wanted to re-evaluate his position on the matter of the Tesseract and his continued deception of Steve, it would have to come after this situation was resolved. That matter temporarily shelved, Phil logged into his computer and began drafting contingency plans just in case everything went to shit.


End file.
